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63-399: Native Americans used the area around Whitehorse Creek for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. The birds, animals, and plants found in the wetland around the high desert lake provided abundant food for early inhabitants. While there are no records of the earliest people to inhabit the area, by the time Europeans began to explore the area in the early 19th century,

126-719: A Numic people that has traditionally lived in the Great Basin region of the United States in what is now eastern California , western Nevada , and southeast Oregon . The Northern Paiute pre-contact lifestyle was well adapted to the harsh desert environment in which they lived. Each tribe or band occupied a specific territory, generally centered on a lake or wetland that supplied fish and waterfowl. Communal hunt drives, which often involved neighboring bands, would take rabbits and pronghorn from surrounding areas. Individuals and families appear to have moved freely among

189-405: A body of water and the wildlife that use it, were not initially regarded as beneficial uses in some states but have been accepted in some areas. Every water right is parameterized by an annual yield and an appropriation date. When a water right is sold, it maintains its original appropriation date. In some jurisdictions, appropriative water rights can be granted directly to communities. Here, water

252-477: A figure in the eyes of the public by making claims of being a princess and using this attention to advocate for her people. Shamanism is popular among most Native American tribes, including the Northern Paiute people. A shaman is a medicine man called a puhagim by Northern Paiute people. The Northern Paiute believe in a force called puha that gives life to the physical world. It is the power that moves

315-481: A fire and cared for it until the fire grew bigger and bigger. The water from the flood dried, and a man "happened." This man was called Nűműzóho, who was a cannibal. The Cannibals (as he and his kind were called) killed all the Native people, except for a woman who was able to escape. This woman kept herself alive by traveling from place to place in the region, meeting and staying with different characters. She then found

378-596: A fire. The season for story-telling in the American West was during the winter months. The elderly members of the tribe would animatedly and humorously tell the tale from their memory as told to them by previous elders and family members. They were told “as a way to pass on tribal visions of the animal people and the human people, their origins and values, their spiritual and natural environment, and their culture and daily lives.” The stories were often poems that were performed musically, called "song-poems." Members of

441-472: A government to regulate water quality is premised upon protecting downstream navigable waters from contamination. These waters are publicly owned and include the right to receive these waters undiminished under both the riparian and appropriation doctrines under the Clean Water Act . The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate and occupy "navigable waters"; this

504-507: A long-term environmental sustainment plan in 1992. As part of that agreement, the Whitehorse Ranch agreed to reduce the number of its cattle that grazed on public lands from 3,500 to 800. In 2006, Naftzger sold the ranch to David Herman, a Portland farm equipment dealer and attorney. During the period he owned the ranch, Herman welcomed paying guests who stayed in the ranch's bunkhouse and guest cottages. In 2012, Herman sold

567-455: A man living in the mountains whom she married. They bore four children: two Paiute (one brother, one sister) and two Pit Rivers (one brother, one sister). The two sets of children fought frequently because they were from different tribes. Their father (some think he was a Wolf) threw them in different waters. This caused them to go their separate ways while continuing to fight and quarrel whenever they came in contact with each other again. And thus

630-474: A site on Whitehorse Creek southeast of Steens Mountain for his ranch headquarters. The location was near Camp C. F. Smith, which had been established by the United States Army in 1866 (the camp was abandoned in 1869). According to Oregon Geographic Names , a post office was established at this location in 1867 with W. A. Mix as the first postmaster . Mix was among a group of soldiers moving through

693-554: A white horse as a symbol of the Whitehorse Ranch. Devine enjoyed horse and greyhound racing, breeding some of his race horses at the ranch. He also supplied horses to the Chico–Silver City stage line. Devine built a large stone and timber barn for his horses. The barn was capped by cupola with a white horse weather vane. Todhunter and Devine cattle grazed widely across the Alvord Basin and into upper Owyhee country until

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756-470: A wide variety of wildlife including cougar, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, coyote, and jackrabbits. Bird species native to the area include sage grouse , mountain chickadees , gray-headed juncos , black-throated gray warbler , Virginia's warbler , MacGillivray's warbler , pine siskin , red crossbill , bushtit , hermit thrush , and northern goshawks , ravens, and eagles. Creeks on the Whitehorse Ranch are home to Lahontan cutthroat trout . To preserve

819-517: Is 42 miles (68 km) southwest of the ranch. Burns, Oregon , the county seat of Harney County, is 130 miles (210 km) to the north and west of the ranch. Caldwell, Idaho is 165 miles (266 km) away. The ranch is located on Whitehorse Ranch Road , a gravel road that extends 50 miles (80 km) from Oregon Route 205 8 miles (13 km) south of Fields to U.S. Route 95 between Jordan Valley, Oregon , and McDermitt, Nevada . Northern Paiute The Northern Paiute people are

882-596: Is an official weather station. It reports weather data to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center daily. The native vegetation on the Whitehorse Ranch is dominated by large sagebrush and desert grasses. Other common shrubs include bitterbrush , snowberry , and ceanothus . Patches of mountain mahogany are also found in the area. Common grass species include Idaho fescue , bluebunch wheatgrass , cheatgrass , western needlegrass , Sandberg's bluegrass , Thurber's needlegrass , and bottlebrush squirreltail plus basin wildrye in some well-drained areas. The ranch supports

945-485: Is practiced, such systems are often the source of conflict, both legal and physical. Some systems treat surface water and ground water in the same manner, while others use different principles for each. Water rights requires consideration of the context and origin of the right being discussed, or asserted. Traditionally, water rights refers to the utilization of water as an element supporting basic human needs like drinking or irrigation. Water rights could also include

1008-438: Is referred to as a navigable servitude . Congress has exercised this power in a variety of ways, including the construction of dams, diverting water from a stream and blocking and restricting use of waterways. The servitude is a Federal power, not an individual right. Public trust rights to access and recreate upon navigable-in-fact waters may also exist. These rights are often based on local laws over property held in trust for

1071-542: Is reserved to provide sufficient capacity for the future growth of that particular community. For example, California provides communities and other water users within watersheds senior status over appropriative (use-based) water rights solely because they are located where the water originates and naturally flows. A second example of community-based water rights is pueblo water rights. As recognized by California , pueblo water rights are grants to individual settlements (i.e. pueblos) over all streams and rivers flowing through

1134-662: The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, several individual colonies gained federal recognition as independent tribes . Humans have inhabited the area between the West and Northwest of the United States for over 11,000 years. One version of how the Northern Paiute people came to be is that a bird, the Sagehen (also known as the Centrocercus ), was the only bird that survived a massive flood. The Sagehen made

1197-535: The Northern Paiute people were using the area that is now Whitehorse Ranch. Hudson's Bay Company fur trappers were the first Europeans to visit southeastern Oregon. Peter Skene Ogden passed along the north shore of the Malheur Lakes in 1826. Other fur trapping expeditions followed in the 1830s. Several military expeditions passed through the area in the late 1850s and 1860s. Major Enoch Steen

1260-578: The Pyramid Lake War of 1860, Owens Valley Indian War 1861–1864, Snake War 1864–1868; and the Bannock War of 1878. These incidents generally began with a disagreement between settlers and the Paiute (singly or in a group) regarding property, retaliation by one group against the other, and finally counter-retaliation by the opposite party, frequently culminating in the armed involvement of

1323-454: The Reno area, Washoe people. Later, the government created larger reservations at Pyramid Lake and Duck Valley , Nevada . By that time the pattern of small de facto reservations near cities or farm districts, often with mixed Northern Paiute and Shoshone populations, had been established. Starting in the early 20th century, the federal government began granting land to these colonies. Under

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1386-632: The U.S. Army . Fatalities were much higher among the Paiute due to newly introduced Eurasian infectious diseases , such as smallpox , which were endemic among the Europeans. The Natives had no acquired immunity . Sarah Winnemucca 's book Life Among the Piutes (1883) gives a first-hand account of this period. The US government first established the Malheur Reservation for the Northern Paiute in eastern Oregon. It intended to concentrate

1449-584: The 1770 population of the Northern Paiute within California was 500. He estimated their population in 1910 as 300. Others put the total Northern Paiute population in 1859 at about 6,000. Water rights Water right in water law is the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater . In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentious. In other areas, especially arid areas where irrigation

1512-436: The 20th century, gender roles began to shift. Men worked in seasonal jobs and the women mainly worked in laundry and medicine. The shift happened because the men that worked seasonal jobs would not have work at the end of a given season, while women had consistent work. This made women a major provider in the family. Another shift came in the shape of politics. While some women disrupted tribe meetings, Sarah Winnemucca became

1575-588: The Cannibal who kills almost all of the Indians but not the woman; Coyote is "the one who fixed things," mentioned briefly in many of the origin stories; a man and a woman who meet and bear four children; the four children who are paired off into different tribes and quarrel with the other pair. The creativity in which the stories were told is part of the reason for such an array of versions. These epic stories were first told long ago to large groups gathered around

1638-708: The Nevada/California area in which they currently reside. They also may have overthrown and destroyed other Indian tribes in order to inhabit their current lands. For example, the Paiute were almost "continually at war" with the Klamath south and west of them. "The Achomawi, south of the Klamath, also were enemies of the Northern Paiute, (so much so that) the earliest wars related in Achomawi oral tradition were (with) Northern Paiute". Sustained contact between

1701-443: The Northern Paiute and European Americans began in the early 1840s, although the first contact may have occurred as early as the 1820s. Although the Paiute had adopted the use of horses from other Great Plains tribes, their culture was otherwise then largely unaffected by European influences. As Euro-American settlement of the area progressed, competition for scarce resources increased. Several violent confrontations took place, including

1764-440: The Northern Paiute community. The Northern Paiute believe that doctors/shaman retrieve the souls of those who have committed wrongdoings and re-establish them in to Native American society. They are the intermediaries between the evil acts of the sick and the goodness of the healthy tribe. For this reason, Northern Paiute do not perceive white doctors as capable of fully healing those in need because although they may be able to cure

1827-546: The Northern Paiute there, but its strategy did not work. Because of the distance of the reservation from the traditional areas of most of the bands, and because of its poor environmental conditions, many Northern Paiute refused to go there. Those that did, soon left. They clung to their traditional lifestyle as long as possible. When environmental degradation of their lands made that impossible, they sought jobs on white farms, ranches or in cities. They established small Indian colonies , where they were joined by many Shoshone and, in

1890-455: The Paiute were created and their homes established in Nevada, California, and Oregon. Another version of the creation story tells of a man and a woman who heard a voice from within a bottle. They dumped the contents of the bottle out, and four beings dropped out: two boys and two girls. The 4 people were divided by good and evil. The two good people (Paiute) were to be protected and cared for by

1953-403: The U.S. Constitution limit the power of state or federal governments to impinge upon any exclusive use of water by prohibiting the enactment of any laws or regulations that amount to a "taking" of private property. Laws and regulations that deprive a riparian owner of legally cognizable water rights constitute an illegal governmental taking of private property for which just compensation is owed to

Whitehorse Ranch - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-495: The area in an effort to relocate Camp Alvord. The post office was called White Horse . The land then was part of Baker County from which Harney County was carved in 1889. When Devine took up residence at the ranch, he became the first permanent settler in what is now Harney County, Oregon. Devine became a powerful cattle baron, known for his aristocratic manner. He often dressed in the flamboyant Spanish grandee style including silver-studded leather riding gear. He usually rode

2079-404: The bands. Northern Paiute originally lived a seminomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place following animal migration patterns and seasonal foods. They lived in small, independent groups that consisted of a handful or so of different family units. Upon arrival of foreigners into western Nevada, the Northern Paiute became sedentary in order to protect themselves and handle negotiations with

2142-537: The business, he joined W. B. Todhunter to found the Todhunter and Devine Cattle Company. The following summer, Devine and Juan Redon as head Buckaroo with a dozen California vaqueros along with a chuck wagon and a Chinese cook trailed a herd of 2,500 cattle from California to southeastern Oregon while Todhunter stayed behind to look after the company's holding in the San Joaquin Valley . Devine selected

2205-670: The city and to all groundwater aquifers underlying that particular city. The pueblo's claim expands with the needs of the city and may be used to supply the needs of areas that are later annexed to the city. While California recognizes pueblo water rights, pueblo water rights are controversial. Some scholars and courts have argued that the pueblo water rights doctrine lacks a historical basis in Spanish or Mexican water law. Due to humanity's dependence upon clean water, many nations, states and municipalities have enacted regulations to preemptively protect water quality and quantity. This right of

2268-422: The deeded property and the grazing allotments are combined the ranch stretches 35 miles (56 km) north to south and 27 miles (43 km) east to west. The ranch has 135 miles (217 km) of gravel and dirt roads, 135 miles (217 km) of fence, and 12 livestock wells. There are seven irrigation wells with 250 miles (400 km) of irrigation canals and ditches to deliver water to the fields. In addition,

2331-422: The elements, plants, and animals that are a part of that physical realm. Humans are seen to be very much a part of that world, not superior or inferior, simply another component. The Northern Paiute people believe that "matter and places are pregnant in form, meaning, and relations to natural and human phenomena." This belief gave credibility and placed necessity in shamans, as it does today. In order to draw upon

2394-493: The harsh winter of 1887 killed most of the herd. In 1889, the Whitehorse Ranch was sold to Henry Miller and Charles Lux. At the time, Miller and Lux was the largest cattle operation in the United States. The Whitehorse Ranch was purchased by Paul Stewart in 1945. He drilled new wells on the property to supplement unreliable surface irrigation. He also expanded wild hay fields and planted alfalfa and corn on ranch property. Los Angeles coin dealer, Roy E. "Ted" Naftzger acquired

2457-409: The land upon which the water rests or flows. For example, under English common law , any rights asserted to "moveable and wandering" water must be based upon rights to the "permanent and immovable" land below. On streams and rivers, these are referred to as riparian rights or littoral rights , which are protected by property law . Legal principles long recognized under riparian principles involve

2520-610: The mountains in the fall as a critical winter food source. Women also gathered grass seeds and roots as important parts of their diet. The name of each band was derived from a characteristic food source. For example, the people at Pyramid Lake were known as the Cui Ui Ticutta (meaning " Cui-ui eaters", or trout eaters). The people of the Lovelock area were known as the Koop Ticutta , meaning "ground-squirrel eaters" and

2583-453: The new settlers. Because of their change from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle , women were relied upon more heavily for both their full-time employment and at-home work. In some modern Northern Paiute tribes, men work in "seasonal jobs on the ranches, in the mines, and as caretakers in the nearby motels" and women work "in the laundry, the bakery, in homes and motels as domestics, and in the country hospital". They gathered Pinyon nuts in

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2646-528: The number of cattle has been reduced to 800. The ranch also keeps approximately 50 horses for use on the ranch. The ranch has a small permanent crew; however, additional people are often hired to help with herding, branding, and hay harvesting. The ranch is so large that moving livestock from one pasture to another often takes several days. During these movements, ranch hands herd cattle from dawn to sundown through rugged Oregon High Desert . The ranch's remote location creates some unique challenges. For example,

2709-532: The other proprietors or not." Because of the limits on use, the doctrine of riparian rights is often known as the "downstream user rule" – the downstream users have rights to the water which the upstream users may not abridge. Where water is more scarce (like in the Western United States), allocation of flowing water is premised upon prior appropriation. "The appropriation doctrine confers upon one who actually diverts and uses water

2772-486: The outer shell, the inner shell will decay and be lost, leaving the person dead in reality. A shaman, however, would take an ill person (physically or spiritually ill) and use the power from the universe to heal him. In many cases, a shaman will utilize various mediums, such as a rattle, smoke, and songs, to incite the power of the universe. Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber thought that

2835-769: The people of the Carson Sink were known as the Toi Ticutta meaning " tule eaters". The Kucadikadi of Mono County, California are the " brine fly eaters". Relations among the Northern Paiute and their Shoshone neighbors were generally peaceful. There is no sharp distinction between the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone or Sosone . Relations with the Waasseoo or Washoe people, who were culturally and linguistically very different, were not so peaceful. These differences in lifestyle and language could be because Northern Paiute may have moved from southern regions to

2898-423: The physical occupancy of waterways for purposes of travel, commerce and recreational pursuits. The legal principles and doctrines that form the basis of each type of water rights are not interchangeable and vary according to local and national laws. Therefore, variations among countries and within national subdivisions exist in discussing and acknowledging these rights. Often, water rights are based on ownership of

2961-616: The powers of nature and the universe, shamans would frequently visit sacred sites. These sites can be found throughout the Great Basin and the American West. They include "mountains, caves, waterways, and unique geological formations." One such site is called the Parowan Gap and is sacred to the Paiute (see image). These sacred sites are where shamans performed many of their duties, including curing, rainmaking , warfare, fighting, or sorcery ." Shamans were and are an integral part of

3024-412: The public. In the United States, each state holds the land submerged by navigable waters in trust for the public and can establish a public right to access or recreate within these public waterways. Again, this "water right" is not an individual right, but rather a public right and individual privilege which may include restrictions and limitations based on local laws. The Fifth and Eleventh Amendment to

3087-561: The ranch has primary and secondary water rights in several watersheds. The ranch also has one domestic well that provides potable water for ranch houses and other facilities. The ranch has a private air field with two runways. The main runway is 3,247 feet (990 m) long and 94 feet (29 m) wide. Prior to the Trout Creek Mountain Working Group agreement in 1992, the Whitehorse Ranch kept approximately 3,500 head of cattle on its range lands. Today,

3150-665: The ranch in 1961. Naftzger purchased addition land and built the private Whitehorse Ranch Airport at the ranch. In 1988, the Whitehorse Ranch joined the Bureau of Land Management, United States Fish and Wildlife Service , Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife , Oregon Environmental Council , Oregon Cattlemen's Association , Oregon Trout , and the Izaak Walton League to found the Trout Creek Mountain Working Group . The group's goal

3213-416: The ranch is 4,380 feet (1,340 m) above sea level. The elevation at the ranch's air field is 4,447 feet (1,355 m). The nearest neighbors are ranches 12 miles (19 km) east and west of the Whitehorse Ranch property. The nearest town is the very small unincorporated community of Fields, Oregon , 23 miles (37 km) west of the ranch headquarters. The equally small community of Denio, Nevada ,

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3276-688: The ranch to the BTAZ Nevada cattle company for $ 10.8 million. Shortly after BTAZ Nevada bought the ranch, the 556,330-acre (2,251.4 km) Long Draw Fire burned some of the ranch's grazing allotment in the Trout Creek Mountains. The Whitehorse Ranch has been continuously operated as a cattle ranch since 1869. Today, it includes 63,222 acres (255.85 km) of deeded property. The ranch also has Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments that allow its livestock to graze on 287,205 acres (1,162.28 km) of public range land. When

3339-479: The ranch uses approximately 10,000 US gallons (38,000 L) of fuel per year. Since there are no local fuel stations, the ranch buys fuel from a wholesale distributor in Eugene and trucks it to the ranch once a year. To conserve fuel, ranch hands use small vehicles to check fences and irrigation ditches. The remoteness of the ranch also requires ranch hands to do most equipment repairs on site. The Whitehorse Ranch

3402-474: The right to continue to do so provided that the water is used for reasonable and beneficial uses", regardless of whether that person owns land contiguous to the watercourse. "[A]s between appropriators, the rule of priority is 'first in time, first in right. ' " The 20th century system of prior appropriation water rights is characterized by five principles: Beneficial use is defined as agricultural, industrial, or urban use. Environmental uses, such as maintaining

3465-404: The right to remove the water – for drinking or irrigation – or to add more water into the channel – for drainage or effluence. Under riparian law, water rights are subject to the test of "reasonable use". The judiciary has defined "reasonable use" principle as follows: "the true test of the principle and extent of the use is whether it is to the injury of

3528-399: The riparian doctrine, landowners had the right to receive water undiminished by upstream landowners. Over time, rights evolved from being strictly land-based to also include use-based, allowing non-landowners to hold enforceable rights to receive clean water. A reasonable use rule evolved in some countries. In Finland , waterbodies are generally privately owned, but Finland also applies

3591-581: The riparian ecosystem, the ranch keeps cattle away from creek banks during critical times of the year. The Whitehorse Ranch is in extremely remote area of southeastern Oregon. It is southeast of Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert and north of the Trout Creek Mountains. The ranch headquarters is along Whitehorse Creek in the southeast corner of Harney County. However, the ranch also includes property in Malheur County. The base elevation of

3654-467: The tribe chanted and acted out the stories to the beat of a drum with people dancing. The Northern Paiute origin story, among many other important and formative legends, was passed on orally from tribal elders to younger tribe members and from grandmothers and grandfathers to grandchildren. Many of their stories and much of their history is passed on orally even today. Gender roles among the Northern Paiute did not stand out in society. Men and women divided

3717-452: The water right holder. In ancient Rome , the law was that people could obtain temporary usufructuary rights for running water. These rights were independent of land ownership, and lasted as long as use continued. Under English common law, all tidal waters were held by the Crown and all freshwater streams were included with title to the lands, with full accompanying rights. However, under

3780-502: The woman while the two bad people were subject to the man. The two sets of pairs (good and bad) left the man and woman. Each pair created fire: the two good people made a fire with minimal smoke, the two bad people made a fire with thick smoke. This made them enemies, even before foreigners plotted them against each other later on. War and strife have existed ever since. While several other variations of these stories are told, they all share some similar events and characters. Namely Nűműzóho

3843-424: The work between each other the most traditional way: women made household tools, gathered fruit and seeds, cooked, cleaned, cared for the children, and made the clothing, while men hunted and protected their families. Men also taught their sons how to hunt and fish as a means to pass on a survival skill. Both sexes took part in storytelling, artwork and medicine, and traditional medicine. As the Northern Paiute entered

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3906-497: Was the first non-native to explore the land that is now southern Harney County. Steens Mountain was named in his honor. In the 1860s, the United States Army established several military outposts east of Steens Mountain including Camp Alvord and Camp C.F. Smith . John S. Devine was born in Virginia in 1849. He later immigrated to California. In 1868, Devine decided to establish a cattle ranch in southeastern Oregon. To manage

3969-594: Was to review, discuss and resolve land use conflicts in the Trout Creek Mountains area of southeast Oregon. In 1989, the Whitehorse Ranch voluntarily removed its livestock from 50,000 acres (200 km) of its Whitehorse Butte grazing allotment and two other mountain pastures for a period of three years to prevent over grazing and allow watershed and riparian areas to recover from past grazing. The Trout Creek Mountain Working Group finally agreed on

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